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Guest Blogging & the Commercial aspect

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Antarik Anwesan
from New Delhi |

A travel company recently approached me to post a guest blog (written by one of their authors) on my blog. Couple of months ago a popular e-retail site had approached me with a similar offer where they give me a writeup and I post it as a guest entry from their author on my blog.

I want to know how this works. Should I be charging them something for it?
How does the give-and-take work with guest blogging (specially when it is not a personal entry but there is a commercial company involved)

Would appreciate all help and suggestions. Thanks!

Replies 1 to 9 of 9

SloWord the Author Playwright Blogger
from the Tundra |

One assumes they want to rent space on your blog. Rent = $$. Of course, this is my assumption, as I have no idea how to make money blogging and do not use my blog as a means to make money. Directly, that is, from my blog.

Antarik Anwesan
from New Delhi |

Well that's what even I assume..

The Sorcerer
from Mumbai |

ignore it. It's just one of those backlink tactics. Usually, such content is copied and prepped in a way that it may look unique. Not worth it. 

Antarik Anwesan
from New Delhi |

Oh, I didn't think of it that ways... So, in effect, there is no benefit for my blog?

The Sorcerer
from Mumbai |

Depends on how much you get. No harm in asking but I wouldn't be surprised if it's $50 or less. But then again, for them its a backlink. Artificial backlinking is bad for blogs. If you think its worth it and don't really care about traffic, its your call. 

Antarik Anwesan
from New Delhi |

Traffic sure is important. :DThanks for the reply TS :) 

StyleDestino
from Mumbai |

Ideally it makes sense to charge them for advertising their stuff on your blog, unless its a huge Company and they agree to do the marketing for this post of your blog on their social media channels and you are sure to get 1000s of views and if you want them, then you can consider doing it for free.

Antarik Anwesan
from New Delhi |

Yes, the marketing thing is what I was thinking about.

Thanks for your reply :)

Ragini Puri
from New Delhi/Ludhiana |

Similar question - I got a mail from a company that is 'looking for bloggers and writers who can include our article links in their relevant articles and help us in link building'.

I am not sure if it's a good idea. Please advice.

Antarik Anwesan
from New Delhi |

Ragini, as seems evident from the other replies received here, this sure would simply be a backlink generating tactic, not actually helping our blog in any way.

Let's see if bloggers have some more advice here :)

Vijay Prabhu
from Mumbai |

You have been losing out on revenue Antarik. Never post review posts sent by others unless they pay you money for it. 

Rajesh K
from Chennai |

Without getting paid for it, there is no point in accepting guest posts. Even Google doesn't consider guest post links favorably (for both sites), not sure why they are continuing this. Even if they offer to pay you something, you should still re-consider the offer. Unless you gain some exposure/contacts/excellent content, there is no point in accepting these guest posts which are mainly written for link-building (and hence contain poor quality content). 

Vibha Ravi
from Mumbai |

Thanks for asking this question Antarik and thanks to all experienced bloggers who have answered it. I had got such offers initially but didn't take them up because they wanted to post for free. It's good to have a forum like IB where one can get sane advise.

Abhishek
from Allahabad |

Few tips:

  • Always ask for payment for such sponsored guest posts. If you could, give them a time frame. For example: You can charge $25 for a guest post and metion that the link will be live for 2 years. Keep a note of such backlinks somewhere and remove the links after 2 years (if you want).
  • Check the quality of guest post and also check if the site it is linking to and the content of the guest post aligned with the topics you cover or not on your blog. For e.g., if you are a tech blog and someone offers you a post on wine selection, that would be weird, isn't it? Unless, they are talking about a Wine information app.
  • Google doesn't see backlinks favorably. That's true if you blindly accept and allow guest posts. Guest posts are still a major way to get backlinks for businesses and generate revenue for publishers.
Antarik Anwesan
from New Delhi |

Thanks a lot for all that information Abhishek :)

Anunoy Samanta
from Bardhaman |

This reminded me of an incident a couple of months back at most, where an IB-member had opened a thread talking of content collaboration and all with a renowned e-commerce site (good sounding words). When I contacted her in mail I got the catch. The blogger is supposed to publish two guest-posts supplied by the company (containing multiple links) and he'll be compensated with a 500 bucks GV! This is just a small incidence but I'm seeing even blogging communities are conducting very shrewd campaigns keeping 200-300 bucks GVs as the bait. Many would argue that they aren't forcing anyone to join but then, such campaigns are setting the trend for a blogosphere where companies are exploiting bloggers limitlessly. Never give free links to any business site and do not do it for a dime too. Charge a bit higher than what you think proper and then be flexible for a respectable bargain. Cheers! 

The Sorcerer
from Mumbai |

True. Not sure how certain people call 200-300 bucks as 'revenue'. It's not a regular income. It's not really worth posting trash with backlinks for such kind of money.